Robert sends Newcastle stumbling on

With a performance marked by its scintillating ordinariness, Newcastle United sleep-walked into tomorrow's draw for the second round of the Uefa Cup. Mitigation came in the form of the protective blanket provided by the 5-0 scoreline from the first leg.

But this was still a weak effort from a Newcastle side missing Gary Speed, Alan Shearer and Craig Bellamy, all rested. The others were given an opportunity to shine and did not take it.

Eighty-six minutes separated Newcastle's two on- target strikes, Laurent Robert eventually tucking away what proved to be the only goal.

Breda, average going on poor, should have won but lacked the quality in front of goal when they needed it. Thus the Dutch club's first European game here for 30 years ended disappointingly, but it would have been a lot worse had an authentic Newcastle United turned up.

Newcastle's manager, Sir Bobby Robson, was satisfied if not inspired. He said: "The tie was won in Newcastle. We didn't do anything silly, we worked hard and we didn't give anything away."

The MyCom Stadium belied its dreadful name and the first-leg score by delivering a party atmosphere. Breda's fans had endeared themselves to Tyneside with their volume, though the chants of "Geordie scum" were a reflection of events in Breda earlier in the afternoon.

Apparently a large posse of Feyenoord fans made the short trip from Rotterdam to seek revenge for Newcastle knocking them out of the Champions League last season. Bars were wrecked and the town centre cordoned off.

For those thoughts to be erased Breda needed to stage a shock but, though the huge midfielder Orlando Engelaar drilled a shot inches over the Newcastle bar in the fourth minute and forced Steve Harper into a save soon afterwards, Breda quickly displayed their limitations once again.

These included loose passing and a general inability to get behind the Newcastle defence. Not until the 42nd minute did they again extend the visitors, Marcel Koning directing his header from Nebojsa Gudelj's free-kick on to Harper's right-hand post.

A goal then would have livened matters and might have stimulated Newcastle. Robson's Shearer-free team were guilty of as much sloppiness as Breda, Titus Bramble apparently content to wallop the ball anywhere every time he got it.

Yet Newcastle fashioned two chances in the first half.

In the opening minute Hugo Viana struck a 20-yard rising shot which Gabor Babos, the Breda keeper who was soon to be injured, tipped away for a corner. It was a measure of Newcastle's lacklustre approach that it took another 38 minutes before Robert put a half-hearted lob over the bar.

The hosts came out fired up for the second half, the lanky Johan Elmander immediately surging down the right, prompting Harper to rush off his line and leave Jermaine Jenas to tidy up.

Eight minutes later Elmander scurried down the opposite flank and delivered a perfect low centre along the six-yard line. Stefano Seedorf, brother of Clarence, merely had to make contact and Breda would have been in front, but Stefano is at Breda for a reason and missed the ball completely.

The game petered out from that point, Newcastle content to play within themselves and Breda just stumbling on. Then Robert popped up with four minutes left to guide a low shot beyond the substitute keeper Gino Coutinho.